Derailment safety guard



I Nov. 18, 1947.

G. M CORMICK ET AL 3 6 DERAILMENT SAFETY GUARD Filed Oct. 9, 1944 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY.

a mam'ce m 11m Nov. 18, 1947. M CORMICK ETAL DERAILMENT SAFETY GUARD 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed oci. 9, 1944 INVENTORJ 21: Mg A 1 BY 5 r44 24- M Patented Nov. 18, 1947 DERAILMENT SAFETY GUARD George McCormick, Redwood City, and Ben M.

Brown, Palo Alto, Calif.

Application October 9, 1944, Serial No. 557,898

2 Claims.

The present invention relates to a safety device for railway car trucks and constitutes an improvement upon our prior inventions disclosed and claimed in United States Patents Nos. 2,227,733 and 2,319,466.

The general object of the present invention is the same as that of our said prior patents, viz:

to prevent excessive lateral displacement of the v truck in the event of derailment, by providing a member on the truck with a depending flange positioned to engage the side of the rail when the wheel drops off said rail.

Recent experience, particularly with high-speed trains, has demonstrated that the most effective safety guard for the above purpose is one which will, by contact with the side of the rail, guide the derailed wheels in paths parallel with the rails and close beside them, while permitting said wheels to roll upon the ties and road bed. Various devices have been proposed, in the form of skids positioned to run along the top of the rail when the wheels are derailed, thereby to support the truck on the rail as well as to guide it. Such devices are less eifective than the type herein described, add unnecessary weight and cost, and usually require specially designed trucks.

In the railway equipment art, standardization is of the greatest importance. Because of the enormous number of units involved, any radical change in design introduces grave problems of cost. Engineering effort is therefore directed toward providing improvements whichdo not materially alter standardized design, or which can be added to existing equipment at reasonable cost.

One object of our present invention is to provide a, safety flange or derailment guard which can be added at small cost, either to new equipment at the time of manufacture or to existing equipment, without materially altering the design of the truck, and which will not interfere with, or add to the cost of, standardized maintenance procedure.

A specific object of th present invention is to provide a derailment safety guard particularly adapted for six-wheel trucks of standard design. Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description, which should be read with the understanding that the form, construction and arrangement of the several parts may be changed, within the limits of the claims hereto appended, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Th accompanying drawings consist of the following views.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one-half of a standard six-wheel truck showing one of our improved derailment safety guards.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 showing the relative positions of the wheel, rail, truck side frame, and safety guard when the wheel is on the rail.

Fig. 3 is a section similar to Fig. 2 showing the relative positions when th wheel is derailed.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of our safety guard member designed as a, separate part for attachment to existing trucks, as seen from the left of Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 is a transverse section of the guard member of Fig. 4 showing it attached to the side frame of the truck.

Standard six-wheel trucks are constructed with cast steel side frames 6, Fig, 1, having recesses l for the reception of journal boxes 8 in which are the journals of the wheels 9. The boxes 8 may in some cases be integral with the side frames. The side frame 6 extends the full length of the truck and its end portions are symmetrical. One end portion only is shown in Fig. l, the line CC representing the longitudinal center of the truck; there are three journal boxes 8 in each side frame.

Between the wheels 9, the side frame is widened vertically and divided to form an upper chord I6 and a lower chord H connected by vertical bolster columns l2. A rectangular aperture [3 is thus formed, in which rides one end of the truck bolster l4, supported upon springs E5. The lower chord ll has spaced inner and outer walls I6 and H, as shown in Fig. 2, connected by one or more transverse webs. Two such transverse webs are shown herein as top and bottom walls I8 and I9, forming, with the inner and outer walls [5 and Il, a member of box section. The top wall [8 is widened to form a seat for the springs l5. There are, of course, two such formations at each side of the truck, one on each side of the center wheel. The lower chords I l, beneath the bolsters, are horizontal and are the lowest portions of the side frame.

Our improved derailment safety guard comprises a flange 20 extending downwardly from the inner side wall I 6 of the lower chord l l of the side frame, and one or more bracing gussets 2| (two being shown in Fig. 1) extending from the outer side of said flange to the bottom wall IQ of said chord. The guard flange 25] is preferably aligned vertically with said inner wall 16 as shown in Fig. 2, and its ends are preferably inclined, as shown in Fig. 1. The bottom of the guard flange is spaced above the bottom of the wheel 9 by a distance less than the height of the track rail 22, and the lateral space between the guard flange and the outside of the wheel is greater than the width of the rail, so that when the wheel is derailed and rolls upon the crossties, as shown in Fig. 3, the rail lies between the guard flange and the wheel, and the truck is thereby prevented from having any further lateral displacement. The wheels, therefore, are constrained to run along the ties in a direction parallel with the rails and close beside them, and the truck is prevented from running off the road bed.

The safety guard flange may be integral with the lower chord H of the side frame, as shown in Fig. 2, and would be so made in new construction, or it may be made as a separate unit, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and welded or otherwise attached to said lower chord, the latter construction being easily applicable to existing equipment.

In the separate unit construction, the safety guard is formed as a flanged member having an upper vertical flange 23 lying against the inner side wall 16 of the frame chord H, a horizontal flange 24 lying against the bottom wall [9 of said chord, a depending guard flange 25 positioned in line with the inner wall H, and bracing gussets 26 between said guard flange and the horizontal flange. The member may be attached to the side frame chord H in any suitable manner, as for example by welding as indicated at 21.

There are four safety guards on each six wheel truck, two on each side. Because of the length of the truck, the longitudinal distance between the two safety guards on each side is sufficient to prevent the truck from slewing when derailed.

By mounting the safety guards at the lowest portions of the side frames, their size and weight is reduced to a minimum, and no alteration is required in the design of the side frame or any other portion of the truck. The use of lifting jacks under the journal boxes is not interfered with, nor is any other standard maintenance procedure hampered in any manner.

We claim:

1. In a railway truck having at least three rail running wheels on each side, a journal box for each wheel, and an integral side frame in which all three of said boxes are mounted, the bottom of said frame having higher portions at said boxes and lower portions in the regions between them, said lower portions being lower than the bottom of said boxes and there being at least two of said lower portions of the frame on each side of the truck, and the vertical distance between said lower portions and the top of the rail being greater than the height of the rail, each of said lower portions of the frame having spaced inner and outer vertical walls connected by a transverse web, a derailment guard positioned beneath each of said lower portions of the frame, said guard comprising a depending vertical flange and a transverse gusset extending laterally and upwardly from said vertical flange to transmit lateral thrust therefrom to said transverse web of the frame, said guard being positioned to clear the top of the rail and the road bed when the adjacent Wheels are derailed, and said guard having a substantially vertical face positioned to engage the side of the rail when the wheels are derailed, whereby the derailed wheels will be constrained to roll on the road bed in a path parallel to and close beside the rail.

2. In a railway truck having at least three rail running wheels on each side, a journal box for each wheel, and an integral side frame in which all three of said boxes are mounted, the bottom-of said frame having higher portions at said boxes and lower portions in the regions between them, said lower portions being lower than the bottoms of said boxes andthere being at least two of said lower portions of the frame on each side of the truck, and the vertical distance between said lower portions and the top of the rail being greater than the height of the rail, each of ,saidlower portions of the frame having spaced inner and outer vertical walls connected by a transverse web, a derailment guard positioned beneath each of said lower portions of the frame, said guard comprising a vertical flange lying against and secured to one of said vertical walls of the frame, a transverse flange lying against and secured to said transverse web, and a vertical flange extending downwardly from said transverse flange, said guard being positioned to clear the top of the rail and the road bed when the adjacent wheels are derailed, and said guard having a substantially vertical face positionedto engage the side of the rail when the wheels are derailed, whereby the derailed wheels will be constrained to roll on the road bed in a pathparallel to and close beside the rail.

GEORGE MCCORMICK. BEN M. BROWN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 166,301 Root Aug. 3, 1875 895,937 Andrew Aug. 11, 1908 1,213,205 Kadel Jan. 23, 1917 1,626,610 Hornquist May 3, 1927 2,023,714 Taylor Dec. 10, 1935 2,319,466 McCormick et a1. May 18, 1943 

